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The Passion of Spain The Beatification of 498 Martyrs

With the approval on June 1, 2007, by the Holy Father, of the decrees of recognition of martyrdom of two other groups of Spanish Martyrs, the number of martyrs -- of 1934 (Asturias Rebellion) and of 1936 and 1937 (persecution of Catholics during the Spanish Civil War) -- to be beatified this year rises to 498.

Due to the great significance of the mass beatification (which is the result of 23 different causes, carefully studied for decades in Spain and in Rome), the Spanish episcopate asked the Holy Father to allow the ceremony to take place in Rome, as the measures taken by Pope Benedict at the beginning of his pontificate exceptionally allow. The petition was granted and the beatification ceremony will be held on October 28, 2007 (Feast of Our Lord Jesus Christ the King in the only calendar which all the Martyrs knew, a feast which had been established in 1925 by the very Pope reigning at the time of their glorious martyrdom).

9 comments:

Anonymous
said...

Can any one tell me why the Mercedarian martyrs are not present in this list? Religious initials are O.de. M. They had houses all over Spain, as they still do since they were founded in Spain in 1218. Many died and I find it odd that not one member of this order is included in the beatification.

This is only the latest of several ceremonies of beatification of Martyrs of the Spanish Civil War and Asturias Rebellion - though the largest by far, and the largest in the entire History of the Church.

Besides the 498 who will be beatified this Sunday and the 11 who have been canonized, 468 other Martyrs of Spain (1934, 1936-1939) have been beatified - no Mercedarian, so far. It seems that the Order has not been as diligent as other orders in the process.

498 is a LOT of people. And why are they being canonized all at once. With this many canonizations at once, they'll never be known as anything but "the Spanish Martyrs" and not the individuals they were. No one will ever pray to them individually.

I don't really apporve of the Pope allowing beatifications being done in other countries. I understand why He stopped doing them himself...to signigy the difference between beatificationa nd canonization (and this in a way is a return to the past when a Cardinal was designated by the Pope to do the beatification formula.....but always at St. Peter's)I think beatifications should be done always at the Vatican in St. Peters, by a Cardinal delegate. Then the Pope can attend and bless the crowds, as Benedict XVI has done in the past.Pius XII did it this way. And He is really a Pope who should be more imitated and appreciated in the Church. I watched some of his beatifications and canonizations of old tapes I bought....and the liturgies were magnificent.

Two of the martyrs that are going to be beatified are Mexican from my home state of Jalisco (one of them (Gabriel Escoto) from my mother's hometown of Atotonilco el Alto. He was studying to become a priest when killed by the reds in 1936 at the age of 57. Both mexicans were from the "Los Altos" (The highlands) region in our state where most of the fighting and killing occur during the cristiada a few years before the spanish civil war. The other mexican was in the seminary while the Cristiada war and had to flee Mexico to Spain during the war (1926-1929) and there he joined and was ordained in the Dominican order in 1933, he was killed in 1936 at the age of 27.